The Confessional Game
by Miiko Ashida
Summary: [AU] When Aoyagi Seimei, a volunteer at a mental hospital, is kidnapped, Ritsuka vows to find and rescue him. He doesn't count on getting help from some unlikely sources, like his brother's ex, Soubi. [NiseixSeimei, SoubixRitsuka, SeimeixRistuka]
1. Prologue

The Confessional Game  
Prologue

---  
**Author's Note:** SPOILER WARNING. Consider yourselves warned. This involves characters who are spoilers before volume five, but since it's not canon-verse, it's not really that big of a deal. That's about it. Oh, yeah. And the mansecks. But then, this is Loveless, isn't it? Hehe.

----------------------------------------------------

Late night television is usually filled with tales of deviancy, stories of the basest depths to which mankind can sink. Meant to attract those who thrive on the suffering of others, who take a strange pleasure or curiosity in watching other people's misery.

Akame Nisei never watched TV before eleven p.m.

He was watching now, as a news reporter blathered on about some charity or other -- how utterly boring. His eyes were half glazed with disinterest and a need for sleep, fixed unseeingly on the ten-by-twelve screen. The woman stopped talking, and a young boy came on. Nisei felt his interest perk. He knew that face from somewhere...

"Seimei, you might wanna come in here," he called, fishing out the remote from under a pile of magazines and turning up the volume. The boy's voice filled the house, just as Seimei entered the room, a towel wrapped around his waist. He stopped, about to chide Nisei for calling him during a shower, when he saw the image on the screen.

"I don't know who you are," began the boy, voice trembling and slightly tinny, "but please. Listen to me. I -- I know he probably doesn't mean anything to you, but that's my older brother you have. Please, give him back. I love him so much, I miss him! I won't be angry, but please, just bring him back safely. Please! Wherever you are, just let him go. Let him come home. Please -- please don't hurt him!"

The trembling voice dissolved into hiccoughing tears, and the woman reporter returned to view as the video footage cut off. Seimei's eyes were still on the television, but his mind was obviously somewhere else. The woman's voice droned on: "That was Aoyagi Ritsuka, speaking today about the kidnapping of his older brother, Aoygai Seimei, seventeen years old. We hope his pleas might touch the kidnapper's heart and that Seimei will be released without injury. However, if you have any information regarding this crime, please call your local police. Any tips are greatly appreciated. We have yet to find out the kidnapper's purpose, but it is believed that he used Aoyagi to escape from the mental facility at which he was being held. The kidnapper's name is Akame Nisei, twenty-six years old. More on this story will be broadcasted as the information becomes available..."

Seimei stared.


	2. Chapter One

The Confessional Game   
Chapter One

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"The kidnapper's name is Akame Nisei, twenty-six years old. More on this story will be broadcasted as the information becomes available..."

"No _way_!" Nisei giggled, grabbing Seimei's arm. "Look, we're on TV! How exciting!"

Their pictures, names posted above them, had been laid over a blue screen. Seimei scoffed. "That's an awful picture, Nisei. You really look mentally ill."

"Don't say such mean things!" replied Nisei, still grinning. "Maybe I'm unstable and I'll decide to kill you so there are no witnesses!"

Shaking Nisei's hands off his arm, Seimei dropped down into a chair opposite his companion's. His hands laced together thoughtfully.

"Hey, hey! I didn't mean it. Don't get so serious!" This was followed by an expression of mock-anger.

"Nisei...you must realize that this will make it much harder to move around, now that our faces are public."

"Maybe..." The black-haired man tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well, we could always just stay in here! It'd be like a honeymoon. I've always wanted to have one of those!" He giggled again, clapping his hands.

When Seimei looked up, his eyes were humorless and cold. Nisei paused in his antics, catching on. "Have you forgotten the reason I agreed to break you out in the first place?"

"No," Nisei replied, still smiling a little.

"This is dangerous for me, Nisei. You have nothing to lose. I have everything. You're only lucky that the benefits far outweigh possible consequences. If I am discovered to have gone along with you willingly, I'll be an accomplice. You'll go back to the ward -- maybe, if you're lucky -- but I'll be thrown in prison."

"Ugh." Nisei made a face. "Prison is gross! Look, don't worry about getting caught. Your plan's brilliant, and I'm just the man to pull it off! Besides," he smiled sweetly, "life on the outside with you is enough of an incentive to ensure that I'll be very, very careful."

Seimei nodded. "I have no doubt."

"Hehe. So, then...are you saying you didn't help me out because I was _so_ helpless and cute and you couldn't stand to see me locked up like a criminal?" He pretended to swoon backwards in his chair, one hand to his forehead. "Or was it because of what you'd get out of the deal by travelling with me?" With an acrobat's speed, he had flung himself upright again and leaned forward to place a hand on Seimei's thigh, thumb making little circles against the fabric of th young man's slacks.

"You know better." The hand was removed and unceremoniously pushed back towards its owner; Nisei was undiscouraged. "I don't want your charm and personality. I don't want," a distasteful pause, "_sex_. It's your mind I'm after."

Laughter bubbled up from Nisei's throat as he leapt from the chair and danced toward the bathroom of their small room. "Ah, that's _right_! How could I have forgotten? My beautiful, sexy, brilliant mind! He he he..."

Seimei wondered if he had made the right choice. Sometimes Nisei acted as though he truly deserved his place in the padded room that had been his home until recently.

"Naa, Seimei..." Nisei's eyes leveled at him from the doorway, all the teasing sparkle gone. Half lidded, intense and sharp -- this was the Nisei that was going to make every pain taken well worth it. "I interrupted you, didn't I? Why don't you come with me, and we can finish up that shower of yours together."

--------

"How can you have no idea where they are? That's my baby boy your monster's kidnapped!"

Ritsuka shrunk back into his chair. Psychiatrists' offices made him nervous; he always felt like he was under scrutiny, like he'd done something wrong. It was similar to being in the principal's office. No matter how good you've been, there's an aura of heavy guilt hanging in the air. He was sitting in a chair where they probably had crazy people sit to be examined, listening to his mother cry and scream at the doctor whose fault this all was.

"Why can't you do something?"

"Ma'am, we're doing everything we can, and so are the police. Please calm down."

"No! I will not! Not until my Seimei is right here, back by my side!"

A doctor, wearing the facility's powder blue uniform, put her hand on Ritsuka's shoulder with a gentle smile. "Hey. Do you want to come outside with me while your mother talks this over with the dean?"

Ritsuka nodded, too tired and frightened and in shock to speak. He was relieved to be excused from the bitter tension in the room.

Out in the hallway, the woman introduced herself as Katsuko-sensei and led Ritsuka to her office, where she took his coat and let him sit down on a couch against the wall. She made tea for them both, and waited until he seemed a little more at ease before speaking to him.

"Ritsuka-kun...you're worried, aren't you?"

He nodded.

"But not just about Seimei. Right?"

"How did you know?"

She laughed softly. "It's just a hunch. Well. Your mother's been ignoring you since your brother went missing, hasn't she?"

"Yes. But it makes sense. I -- I don't blame her. I mean,_ I'm_ safe, but Seimei's out there with some violent derranged guy and we're all just so scared and -- Katsuko-sensei, you work here. Did you know that man who took Seimei?"

"Hm? Akame Nisei?"

"Yeah. Him." Ritsuka's face darkened and he huddled closer to his mug of tea, as though hoping to draw some of its warmth into himself.

"...Yes. I worked with him on occasion." The sudden thin line of her lips said more than the tone of her voice. Ritsuka felt his throat tighten wit happrehension.

"Was he...dangerous? Did he -- did he kill somebody?"

Katsuko-sensei sighed. "Ritsuka-kun, a lot of the people in here are dangerous criminals who know how to act very, very well. They pretend to be crazy to avoid being punished for crimes that they committed in full conscience."

"But...being locked up with a bunch of psychos is like a punishment of its own, isn't it?"

"Yes." She paused, looking down. "Akame Nisei is not insane, not in the way you are thinking. He can rationalize. He could plan enough to escape from here. And he was smart enough to get the better of your brother, who is himself an intelligent young man, from what I knew of him." She put a warm hand on Ritsuka's knee, a soft but firm pressure of reassurance. "If someone can do that, then he can control himself. He can think. He knows what's in his best interests, and what's not."

Ritsuka frowned deeply. He shifted on the couch, wrapping his hands tighter around the cup.

"It's _not_ in his best interests to hurt your brother, Ritsuka-kun. He's logical, so he knows that. Seimei's safe. And we'll find him soon, and then all of this will be over." _You'll get your brother back, You'll get your mother back. Everything that man stole from you, you'll get it back._

"Sensei...you didn't answer my question."

"Huh?"

"Did Akame Nisei ever kill anyone?"

"...He did."

"Why couldn't he see that it was bad to kill _them_? How do you know he won't do the same thing to Seimei?"

Slowly, Katsuko-sensei twisted her hands together. She hated thinking about what Nisei did. It made her sick. But she could explain it to this boy without mentioning what actually happened. Just as long as he didn't ask...

She took a deep breath.

"Well?"

"There is a difference, Ritsuka-kun, between doing what is right and what is advantageous. As far as Akame-kun knew, it didn't hurt him to do what he did. But it would hurt him, very badly indeed, to do anything to Seimei, and he knows it. 'Bad' doesn't matter to people like Akame Nisei, but protecting themselves does. And if he protects your brother, he's protecting himself."

"Sensei -- "

The door opened, and the dean appeared with Ritsuka's mother standing behind him, looking white-faced and frantic. Her hands fluttered at her side, and her eyes were wide and rimmed with lack of sleep as they darted around the room. "Ritsuka! It's time to go. We're going home. These people can't do anything for us. Come on!"

Ritsuka cast one torn look between Katsuko-sensei and the woman standing in the door. Right now, one felt less like his mother than the other, and he desperately wanted to stay with the calm hand on his knee and the gentle voice that was honest and calm; she made _him_ feel calm, feel sane. But he abandoned whatever he had been about to say, whatever question had pressed him, rising almost-steadily to his feet. Katsuko-sensei smiled down on him again, patting his shoulder.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Ritsuka-kun. Don't forget your coat," she said.

Ritsuka almost felt more scared leaving her office than he had when the police had first come to his house in the middle of the night, saying crazy things about Seimei being gone. For the first time since that night, he'd felt safe, like things could be okay. Like maybe there was an answer somewhere, a little security.

And now he'd lost that, too.

--------

"We're on our own now, Ritsuka."

Mother's voice shook dangerously as she clenched the steering wheel. He could hear her teeth grind as they took a sharp turn at rather high speed.

"It's just you and me. We're all each other's got -- we have to get Seimei back all by ourselves. You'll do that with me, won't you, Ritsuka?"

"Yes, mother." Of course. Ritsuka wanted nothing more than he wanted to bury his whole self in the strong, protective circle of Seimei's arms one last time and then never come back out again.

"You're such a good boy. Like Seimei..." Her words turned blurry to Ritsuka's ears, but he wasn't sure if it was her crying of his own mind that distorted them. "Those idiots at the hospital! I don't know how they could let something like this happen. Monstrous." Grind, grind went the teeth. "Seimei will be home soon, though. You and I, we'll do things right. We'll get him back safe and sound, and everything will be okay. Everything will be okay. Tell me it will be okay, Ritsuka! Tell me, you tell me right now or else I'll -- "

Ritsuka looked up, shocked at the suddenly vicious tone his mother's voice and words had taken. She was still looking ahead into the road, appearing shaken but not angry. Had he imagined it? Her steady stream of tearful monologue sounded natural again. He shook himself and decided that because it was late, he was hearing things. He'd have to pay better attention in case she really _did _ask him a question, though.

"Seimei, my poor baby boy. You poor thing. Out there all alone. Can you imagine how frightened he must be, Ritsuka?"

"I don't think..."

It was the wrong answer. Mother's head whipped around so that she could stare at him, eyes narrowed. "You don't think _what_?"

"He's -- he's not scared." Ritsuka found confidence in himself, believing every word he said. It made him feel better to think it, so it might help mother, too. "Seimei isn't scared of anything."

"That's right." The woman's lips turned up wryly. "You _do_ know your brother, don't you. Seimei is strong and brave. He wouldn't be scared. I was being silly..." The words continued, streaming out faster and in greater volume, but it seemed that she began to repeat herself after a while, and she didn't stop.

It was a long car ride back home.

-------------------------------------------------------

**Author's Note: **Hello, all! I'm slightly nervous about how everyone will like this, because firstly, it's really, really weird (and AU, yo!), and secondly, the characterization is slightly altered by the settings. This was a total, random whim, but it's really fun to write and I think it's going somewhere. Nisei is a kick in the pants to do dialogue for. I love the guy. But I keep wanting to add extra exclamation points to everything he says, or stick "-tte da yo!" on the ends of random words in his sentences (because that wonderful, adorable inflection of his is nearly impossible to preserve in English). I aplogize for the Japanese interjections thrown in there, but I really thought it enhanced the character, as often as I know it does appear in badfic. And! There _is _a plot behind all of this. You'll see soon, hahahaha! (also! please, please e-mail me if you want to beta, because I'm horrible at things of that nature, like proofreading and punctuation and all those little details. pah! who needs 'em?)


End file.
